“I am here because there has been injustice with Luis Rubiales,” Juan Tamayo tells The Athletic.
“This is very strong. It cannot be that a person is being called an abuser for a little peck, a kiss. When we all know that he is not. It is despicable. There are many worse things that have happened — a woman died last week and there was not all this brouhaha. It is a double standard.”
Tamayo is a resident of Motril, the Andalusian home town of Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales, who has been suspended by FIFA for his behaviour after Spain won the Women’s World Cup on August 20.
The 46-year-old was filmed kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips as Spain collected their medals.
Rubiales has been heavily criticised by many in Spain, including the country’s acting president Pedro Sanchez, who called his actions unacceptable and called on him to consider his position. Acting minister for equality Irene Montero tweeted that his kiss was “sexual abuse”.
However, these sentiments were not shared by all of those who gathered outside Motril’s Church of the Divine Shepherdess on Monday. Or all of those inside.
Angeles Bejar, Rubiales’ mother, had entered the church on Monday morning to begin a hunger strike. Some protesters held up banners including ‘Stop Rubiales being…
